During a recent interview published on the Hallow: Prayers and Meditation YouTube channel, the singer, songwriter, and fashion designer reflected on the time she discovered she was expecting her youngest son, Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale. Stefani was 43 when she became pregnant, something she previously believed might not be possible.
Looking back on that period, Stefani admitted that she strongly hoped to have another child but felt discouraged by her age. “I really wanted to have another baby. I really did,” she shared. “I couldn’t and I was old and [I] started talking about all these things … it was waking me up.”
The singer is a mother to three sons: Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, and Apollo. She welcomed them with her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale. According to Stefani, the experience of having Apollo in 2014 became closely tied to the growth of her Christian faith.
Her spiritual journey, she explained, began after working with a friend who had an unexpected transformation in his own beliefs. The friend, who had grown up without religious faith, began studying religious texts and eventually experienced a profound personal awakening.
“I started working with this guy, and he was really like an atheist Jew that converted after being an atheist growing up in Israel. He was studying the Torah, and he had this big epiphany [and] awakening and he starts talking to me about the Torah,” she said.
Around the same time, Stefani’s eldest son, Kingston, was hoping for a younger sibling. She remembered feeling emotional when she had to explain to him that having another baby might not be possible because of her age.
“[I told him], ‘I’m sorry. Mommy is too old to have a baby.’ … [Kingston] was 8. He was like, ‘Please God, let my mommy have a baby.’ I just remember thinking, look at my little boy. He’s praying for me!” she recalled.
Kingston continued praying “every night” for a sibling, even though his parents had never encouraged him to do so. For Stefani, what happened next felt extraordinary.
“I never taught him that, really. I think it was four weeks later and I was pregnant with Apollo, who I had at 44 years old, naturally, totally a full-on gift. That was the first miracle,” she noted.
Today, Stefani is married to country singer Blake Shelton and continues to reflect on that experience as one of the most meaningful moments of her life.